- Rishonomic used to have a rule that read thus (with typos exactly as they were in the Rishonomic ruleset)
312. Isolationism is good.
Rishon is the One True Nomic. No other nomic game shall ever be greater than Rishon. No other nomic game may claim to be greater than Rishon. Any Nomic game that violates the previous two sentences shall be considered a sworn enemy of Rishonomic.
Ackanomic is a sworn enemy of Rishonomic. Thring is a sworn Enemy of Rishonomic. Pumpkin Patch Nomic is a sworn enemy of Rishonomic. Agora is not, because they are a generally boring lot.
It is considered good form to chide Sworn Enemies any time the oppritunity presents itself.
When this was discovered, around the beginning of 1997-05, several Players of Agora declared war on Rishonomic, and plans were quickly hatched for an invasion. Agora Player Harlequin? was unofficially declared Commander-in-Chief of the Agoran Militia, and a tentative invasion date of 1997-06-01 was set.
- The plan was for several Agora Players to join Rishonomic and force the adoption of a rule that would give Agora colonial-style power over Rishonomic. By 1997-05-05, this wording for the rule met with general approval
Rishonomic recognises that Agora is the one true master of all nomics. Agora is the Overlord and Protector of Rishonomic by Platonic right.
If the almighty Agora, in its infinite wisdom, should ever pass one of its Proposals that expresses a desire to modify this nomic's ruleset, then the modifications it wishes occur as soon as any player receives a copy of the Proposal from an Agora Player. When this happens, the Speaker shall humbly acknowledge the edict, thanking Agora for paying any attention to its most unworthy subject.
If this rule is ever Mutable, it immediately transmutes itself to Immutable. This rule cannot be repealed, amended, transmuted, retitled, pushed, shoved, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered (or renumbered) by any means other than those required by this rule. This rule takes precedence over all other rules.
The plan eventually fizzled, because Morendil, for reasons we (Murphy and Zefram) forget, alerted Rishonomic to the conspiracy before it could strike.
The war led to the official creation of the Agoran Office of Commander-in-Chief on 1997-05-19. This Office, along with the complementary Office of Ambassador, has since been abolished.
- Amusingly, the only loophole we could imagine in the Overlord Rule involved subverting it by redefining words, e.g., adopting this rule
"Repealed" means "painted white". "Aced" means "deleted from the ruleset". The Overlord Rule is hereby aced. This rule is hereby aced.
- A while later, Rishonomic adopted a considerably less benign rule, along the lines of
Upon the adoption of this proposal, the ruleset is amended by replacing all numbers with the phrase "A Suffusion of Yellow".
which was promptly blamed on the Agoran conspiracy, even though I believe a non-Agoran proposed it. Anyway, despite a good struggle, the game was abandoned as unplayable soon after that. Ironically, had the Overlord Rule been enacted it would have provided a way to restore the ruleset to a playable state. Agora would no doubt have delighted in exercising its duty as Protector of Rishonomic.
(Information from Murphy and Zefram.)